This invention relates in general to an apparatus for binding loose sheets to form brochures or books, and in particular, to a device for feeding strips coated with a fusion adhesive on one of their surfaces to a sheet-stack binding apparatus.
Apparatus, for binding loose sheets to form brochures or books of the type using strips coated with a fusion adhesive, are described, for example, in DE-PS 2 144 101, as well as in the European Patents EP O 186 080 and EP O 412 742. A sheet stack held between clamping elements is pressed in the usual manner onto a fusion-adhesive coated strip which is arranged directly on or above a heated platen. As shown in EP O 186 080, an adhesive element cut to be adapted to the sheet format can also be pressed by means of a pressure device against the spine of the sheet stack from below and then heated. Using heated lateral pressure elements, the adhesive strip is then folded and pressed against the cover sheets. EP O 320 056 describes a device for binding a stack of loose sheets by strips having a fusion-adhesive coating, in which selectively activatable means are provided for removing the adhesive layer during a binding operation. In the case of these known apparatus, the strip is fed sequentially by one or several strip transport units from a supply station through a cutting unit to a binding apparatus. Such apparatus are disadvantageous in that the sheet-stack binding operation has to be completed before another strip can be fed for the subsequent binding operation of the binding apparatus.